Stellenbosch University
Welcome to Stellenbosch University
It's possible to pursue your passion AND pay the bills
Author: Development & Alumni / Ontwikkeling & Alumni
Published: 22/09/2017

If you think pursuing your passion means giving up on a job that pays the bills, this may not be the case after all. Meet Stellenbosch University alumnus Dalton Odendaal who graduated with a BCom LLB from Maties and now runs his own business specialising in sports marketing and is also a consultant at the UK-based specialist sports, media and entertainment law firm Harbottle & Lewis.

Dalton will be the guest speaker at the Alumni Relations Office's second Careers Café on 9 October at 13:00. The event will take place in Room 230 on the second floor of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences building on the corner of Merriman and Ryneveld Streets.

“These days people do not have to do the same job for their whole lives and there are more opportunities to do something that you're interested in and enjoy. Becoming a partner in a law or an accountancy firm is not the only way to achieve success and being an entrepreneur is rightly also viewed as a sign of achievement and success," says Dalton who lives in the United Kingdom, but still proudly holds South African citizenship.

“My own career might have started off in a conventional way. I completed a BCom LLB at Maties and then started doing my articles at a law firm in Cape Town. I had the opportunity to study for a Masters degree in law at Cambridge University (LLM), so I interrupted my articles to do that. I then interrupted my articles for a second time when I had a further opportunity to complete a BCL (Bachelor of Civil Law) degree at Oxford University. I must have been the longest serving article clerk in history – it took me 5 years to complete them!

“Whilst I was at Oxford, all my peers were doing interviews at law firms in London. I am an avid tennis player and it is through this network that I ended up attending my first interview at a London law firm and secured a job in the corporate tax team."

While Dalton admits that he already knew at that stage that he did not want to remain in corporate and tax law forever, the training provided him with a good foundation. To improve his chances of working in sports law, he enrolled for evening classes on a part-time basis at King's College London and completed a specialist Postgraduate Certificate in Sports Law.

In 2000 he joined Harbottle & Lewis as a Senior Associate where he started focusing on the commercial side of sports law. This included the negotiating and drafting of sponsorship, licensing, broadcasting rights and other commercial agreements. Seven years later he had the opportunity to work on the London Olympics and Paralympic Games where he was the Head of Legal: Commercial, a testimony to his expert knowledge in the commercial sports field.

His involvement in the Olympic and Paralympic Games and his passion for all things sports related, led to his next career opportunity as the General Counsel for the inaugural Invictus Games held in London in 2014. “The Invictus Games is an international multi-sport event for wounded, injured and sick service men and women that was started by Prince Harry and has since been held in Orlando in the United States and Toronto in Canada," explains Dalton.

His involvement in the Invictus Games has provided him with opportunities to also wok for other members of the Royal Family, for example, by helping them secure sponsorship for their various charitable activities. Other sporting events that he works on include the Rugby World Cup, the Cricket World Cup, Wimbledon, the World Athletics Championships, and the European Golf Tour.

“I didn't come from a professional background in that neither of my parents had been to university. My father completed an agricultural degree at Grootfontein Agricultural Development Institute in the Great Karoo and my mother was a personal assistant. They ended up running their own business exporting proteas. They realised the importance of an education and of working hard. They encouraged both my sister and myself to do the best we could at school and to get a good university degree.

“I knew I wanted to be a lawyer – mainly by process of elimination as I didn't want to do anything involving science or maths and I am not a creative person at all. I thought I wanted to be an advocate – but that might have been the influence of television programmes. It was only when I started working at a law firm that I realised what I liked and what I didn't like. It also dawned on me that I was going to have to work for a long time and that I needed to do something that I was interested in and passionate about.

“By working hard at whatever job I happened to be in and by keeping an eye open to all opportunities, I was able to end up doing something that I really enjoy and that I am good at. I recognise that I have been fortunate and that not all students might have the family support and opportunities that I had, but I firmly believe that you can increase your possibility of having a successful career by working hard and doing something you are interested in."

According to Shaun Stuart, the Manager: Alumni Relations, the Careers Café series was developed by the Alumni Relations Office to provide a platform for alumni to engage with the university in a different manner by offering their time and skills to help current students prepare for the careers they want.

Stuart says that while SU's degree programmes are world-renowned and equip graduates with the relevant skills and knowledge to perform the tasks they are required to do upon entering the job market, studies have shown that graduates across the world are failing to build their careers or progress up the career ladder due to a lack of soft skills.

"There is therefore a real need to focus on improving our students' soft skills in the long run, but at the same time, we can also build better connections with past graduates who have experience of the world of work and what our current students will need when entering the job market and beyond.

"This is also part of a bigger drive at the university to connect with our alumni in a variety of meaningful ways, to build more intimate relationships between alumni and their faculties, and to start connecting with our future alumni and inspire them to think about their lives beyond university and start building the career they want now," said Stuart at the first Café held in October 2016.

Invites have already been sent to students and those who RSVP before the cut-off date on 5 October will receive a free lunch that they can enjoy during the talk. Students are also encouraged to like the University and Alumni Facebook pages to receive more information about the talk in the weeks preceding it and to watch those pages for the Facebook competition to win a free dinner with Dalton and the Alumni Relations Office on the evening of the talk.

After the event, a survey will also be conducted amongst students on ways to improve the Cafés going forward and a lucky student will also stand the chance to win a voucher for two from Hudsons in Stellenbosch during this exercise.

Remember to use the hashtag #SUCareersCafe or #USLoopbaanKafee to keep track of the event before and on the day on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo: Dalton Odendaal, an SU alumnus, entrepreneur and legal consultant at the UK-based media and entertainment law firm Harbottle & Lewis, will be the guest speaker at the second Careers Café at Stellenbosch University on 9 October.